From SeanR - Poe, BB-8 and a Bridgeburner for Curtgeld (22 points)

First up today is a repaint of the new T-70 X-Wing from the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game, with the paint job inspired by Poe Dameron's ship from Episode 7.

It was one of my projects that didn't quite work over the past few months, and was a great learning experience. Painting with orange took a fair few coats and some of those weren't thinned enough. So the paint was scraped off and I started again...
But it's worked out nicely in the end. And I even got to put some orange and black on the BB-8 droid on top to give it some more accuracy.

In stalking researching some of the previous Curtgeld submissions I found that Curt's fond of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series of fantasy novels. I'm also a reader of the world that he and fellow author Ian C Esslemont have been writing about. Many of the characters in the series are also quite the risk takers and gamblers so that was a nice fit too.

So in comes Whiskeyjack for the Curgeld.

Whiskeyjack was a Sergeant of the 9th Squad of the Bridgeburners company of the Malazan army. Members of the Bridgeburners company are involved with much of the stories throughout the book series to varying degrees, and due to their motto of "First In, Last Out" typically suffer horrendous casualties.
After umming and ahhing looking for a good combo for the characters Gessler and Stormy, or a suitable Temper (my fav), I found this Frostgrave model.
It immediately jumped out as a good fit for the Whiskeyjack character. He's got that grizzled, veteran look with a rich cloak that hints at a higher calling, and a shield that's perfect to attempt a bit of freehand for the Bridgeburner company symbol.

 

I hope you like him Curt. The cloak looks better in person.

The X-wing is in approx 1/270 scale so I think it's worth 1 or 2 points. Whiskeyjack should net me another 20 points.

And so my submissions for my first Challenge comes to an end.
My apologies to the crew. Unfortunately I've woefully missed my mark in points completed, but have learned a lot about eyes being too big for my schedule (or something like that...) and that I don't have the focus for batch painting quite yet.
In my (limited) defense I've also fully painted more mini's in the past few months than I have in the past 10 years so that's something of a win. And with baby #1 on the way in about 8 weeks there's been other matters to be preparing for too...

Thanks to Curt, GregB and all the other helpers and painters for the inspiration, community and feedback.

From Minion Tamsin:
Lovely work Sean. Both the X-Wing repaint and the Bridgeburner looks superb.b Poe's X-wing gets you 2 points as a 6mm vehicle, plus 20 for the Bridgeburner.
It's been great having you as a participant. See you next year!

From SeanR - More 28mm Space Marines (40 points)

Here are some more of my Word Bearer Space Marines from the Betrayal at Calth box game.

First up are the Terminators - heavily armed and armoured genetic super soldiers of the Word Bearers legion. They start off good, but in the back story of the game they turn bad and repaint their armour red.

The box has these as a different legion, but I'd like the option to play them as an army in Warhammer 40K so chose to paint the 'loyalist' half of the box with the grey armour they used to have before they turned evil.

There's not much to say about the paint job for these guys. They were quite fiddly to keep neat with the different elements, but I used a pretty simple choice of colours and toned down the highlights to keep my speed up.

In addition to this 5, I've continued working on my smaller regular ones, just another 3.

I used the Micro Sol / Micro Set combination on their transfers - I've had a frustrating time attempting to use these in the past but it made these much easier to apply.

So this should be 40 points for this week. Time to pick up the pace for the last month! Definitely need to work on my Bolt Action US army so hopefully a reasonable points dump for next week.

All right - more sci-fi goodness! Well done Sean.  The "Betrayal at Calth" game has been a great jolt to the 30k scene, and it's neat to see more Marines heading to the table. The Word Bearers make excellent bad guys (or, as I prefer to call them, "good guys"), which means they make for excellent figures all around on the gaming table.  I like your plan of leaving some of the figures in the earlier colours so they can play in Great Crusade settings or as Loyalists in the Horus Heresy.  The colours used here are excellent, and I can sympathize with your challenges using the decals.  While products like Micro Sol are quite amazing, it is frustrating that GW continues to make the decals for the marines - particularly the shoulder plates - just a shade too large, requiring all sorts of chemical devilry just to get the damn things set...

So 40 points for you! And we look forward to your Bolt Action US army stuff and the points dump next week. 

From SeanR - A Knight of a Different Colour (5 points)

So it's been a little while, but I've got my latest entry completed.

This is a Lord-Celestant model from Games Workshop's Warhammer Age of Sigmar range of Stormcast Eternals, with a shield from another model replacing his hammer. He's basically a space marine in a fantasy-style setting, and every time he dies an angel gets its wings he gets resurrected and forgets stuff.

I'm proud of my work on him, it's the neatest base coating and highlighting I've done so far and the gold has a few layers with a hint of purple, and some purple as a spot colour on the belt and some straps.

I mainly chose him as an excuse to try out some turquiose colour (mainly GW's Sotek Green) - it gives that fantasy, bubble gum feel to the model that's a contrast to some futuristic and historical models I'm working on.

Unfortunately my photography has let the work down - I need to do some reading on other things to try so I can level up that skill. Does anyone have any good articles, or tips to suggest?

Dramatic foot on rock with shadow in background pose. Good for knights and politicians everywhere.

He's on a 40mm base, and is a bit larger than your average 28mm human-sized model. I'm not sure on the points for this guy - 5ish?

Well Sean, you have really done some great paint work with this fellow.  I have to admit the whole "Age of Sigmar" thing doesn't work for me, but your pride in the outcome here is justified.  This guy looks ready to smash stuff and people to bits in a very righteous and dramatic fashion.  The colours look great, and the effects are excellent. He has come down from the stars to smite in style!

I struggle with hobby photography as well, so can't really offer any useful tips, but a number of the Challengers are pro photo takers, not least of all Curt, so I'm sure they will chime in with some info.   The lighting is the trickiest part for me, but there are some great apps out there which can help with that once you have the photo to work with.  Others will have much better advice, I expect!

Points-wise, bulky as he is, he still fits in the 28mm range, so he will add five points for your score.  Great work - is there a larger Sigmar force brewing behind this fellow, or is he the last one?

From SeanR - Bearing the Word (10 Points)

For my first entry, I've painted up 2 models from the GW Betrayal at Calth box.

Confession time - I haven't finished painting a model in years. Many years.

With the Painting Challenge and picking up the lovely Calth box minis, I thought it time to get cracking with the aim of getting the full box done by Cancon (a large gaming convention in Canberra, Aus) in late January.

So here are 2 Word Bearers Space Marines. And they were quite enjoyable to paint. Easy colours with reds, black and metal with a really simple grey underground basing to push through that wall and actually get something finished!

This should net me a whole 10 points.

Here are some more shots in true Abba fashion.

Now that I look at the last two pics I can totally see it. But which one's the Brunette? She's was my favourite...

First, welcome aboard Sean - it's great to have you with us!

I always love seeing people using the Challenge to either start, or get back into the hobby. These Marines look terrific Sean. How many do you have to get done for Cancon? I suspect we will be seeing more of these over the next few weeks? Wonderful stuff.